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You may have mistakenly deleted important messages while organizing your phone’s inbox. Lucky for you, they’re retrievable if your default messaging app has a trash menu, or you’ve performed a cloud backup. Technically, the texts are still on your phone. The Operating System (OS) just hides them so that they’re inaccessible through your usual file navigation or app interfaces. It also declares the previously occupied storage space as free, allowing you to overwrite it with new data.
Although using third-party recovery tools seems like a smart hack for retrieving the messages, it’s not always recommended. Most of these tools come with a price ranging from a few dollars to several hundreds. Also, there are privacy concerns linked with strange software scanning your device for lost data. The most reliable recovery solutions are already integrated into your devices, and here’s how to use them.
How to recover deleted texts on the Samsung Messages app
The native Google Messages app doesn’t have a trash folder. When you delete texts, you lose them forever. However if you use a Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet, you have the custom Android OS along with the brand’s own messaging app. Samsung Messages has a trash folder where deleted messages stay up to 30 days before wiping completely.
Since it’s an exclusive app, you can’t install it on other smartphones outside Samsung’s ecosystem or get it officially from anywhere else besides the Galaxy Store (Formerly Galaxy Apps). Before you use it, ensure that you’ve made it your default app. If you haven’t, it’ll prompt you to do so when you open it. Accept it, otherwise, you can’t access its full features.
Here’s how to get back your lost messages on the Samsung Messages app:
Open Samsung Messages. Then tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner. Select Trash from the options that appear.
Long-press the message you want to recover. Then tap Restore, or Restore all if you’ve selected multiple messages.
How to recover deleted Android text messages with Cloud backups
If you use Google Drive to back up your phone, you might be able to retrieve the latest copies of your messages before deletion. But there’s a catch — You have to perform a factory reset. It’s the only way to restore the backup during setup. Since the factory reset erases all current data on the device, you’ll want to make a backup of your current data to prevent permanent loss.
During setup, sign in with the Google account associated with the text messages backup. This action helps Google to automatically access and restore the correct backup data, as well as re-establish connection to other services like Gmail, Drive, and Photos.
If you use Samsung Cloud instead, data recovery isn’t difficult. You can access and restore texts on your Samsung Messages app directly from the device’s settings menu without a factory reset. Here’s how to do it:
Go to Settings > Accounts and backup. Under Samsung Cloud, tap Restore data.
You should see the most recent backup on the device. Tap it. Next, check the circle beside Messages. Then tap Restore at the bottom of the screen.
Wait for the restoration process to complete. Then tap Done.
How to recover deleted Android text messages via mobile carriers
Mobile carriers often keep your text message backups for a limited time. It’s mainly for billing and legal purposes, and the duration they hold it for varies. For example, AT&T retains sent and received messages in its cloud storage for up to 90 days. It’s a good idea to reach out to your carrier, and they should have a website where you’ll find their contact information.
They may ask you for personal details, like your phone number, account information, and the approximate date of deletion to verify your identity and find the correct records. Depending on their internal procedures, it could take a while and not all carriers can restore messages to your phone. You might receive them as a transcript, log file, or other formats.
Quick actions provide fast results
You’ll want to act quickly in recovering your lost text messages. The longer you wait, the higher the chances of overwriting and permanently erasing the hidden copies. If none of the aforementioned solutions don’t work, sum up confidence and ask the other person in the conversation to resend the texts. When you delete something on your device, it affects only your local copy. The other person’s version stays intact, so getting it from them may be your last resort.
SOURCE: Talk Android
